Another 8th Grade girls A game
 

A competitive game with a final score of 51 - 48 (visitors and the good guys lost). Same two officials as my previous 8th grade girls post. Weaker official has now embraced the idea of pointing to the floor on all non shooting fouls, even in the backcourt.
Two items of note:
1) Fans really, really, really don't know the rules. Several of them know I am very familiar with the rules and ask questions periodically. My usual responses are "The officials are not calling a bad game." or I try to briefly explain the rules as too why the official is correct or may have been correct. I have moved away from the louder fans at times as I feel I am representing the team and school. It becomes a sort of feeding frenzy as each fan yells with no one stopping to think if the official was correct or not.
2) Along about the end of the 3rd qtr., with the ball OOB right where I had been setting, the very reasonable, but loud and rules challenged chap I had been setting next to stands as the official is preparing for the in-bound play.
I think that made the official a little nervous (and I don't blame her). She said a few words and pointed to the site administrators. After the inbounds play, the site administrators came over to the same chap and had a few words with him. The conversation between the chap and site administrator amounted to he was not ejected yet but he needed to settle down. After the site administration returned to their monitoring positions, I tugged at his sleave and got him over with me away from the other fans and told/asked him to watch the game "over here with me". Things went fine after that, except a few more fans came over to stand by me and "almost ejected" (in a recessed area between two bleachers), so I moved back to the bleachers that loud and rules challenged fans had moved away from.

I call him chap, but he is a friend and a father of kids the same age as both my children.

"Fanatic" Analysis
 

Seems to me that fanatic (cf. derivation of "fan") parents' negative intensity and tone is inversely proportionate to their experience with the game. Parents can be found of four basic kinds:
1) Have never played (thus are playing vicariously through their kids)
2) Played when younger, but probably weren't very good (and expect their kids to be better than they were)
3) Have coached before
4) Have officiated before
5) Have coached before and now officiate, or vice versa
The ones I've come to most appreciate are the 4's and 5's. (I'm a 5, as are many of you). The ones who are a headache and embarassment to the sport as a shole are usually the 1's and 2's.
I, like the previous poster, when watching a game in the gym of my alma mater high school, try to broaden the perspectives of and thus heighten the level of understanding of fanatics who are constantly berating the officials. As a result, many choose to avoid me. I guess that's okay with me. But there's been a good number who've been won over to a greater measure of maturity by a reasonable mention of the actual rules and situations they previously misunderstood.
When observing a game before or after the one I've been assigned, I find it increasingly uncomfortable even witnessing the depths of ignorance of the rules of many fans nowadays. I wanted to watch a whole game after mine just last night, but left after the first quarter for that very reason. I just couldn't stand it anymore. Reasoning with a fanatic isn't something I'd choose to do before or after officiating a game.
I do notice that the athletic directors in our area are doing a better job sowing the seeds of sportsmanship in various ways. Maybe it's a little better than it has been in the past.
I think what we need are more fans of the game, and fewer fanatics of their favorite teams.
What do you think?

Importance of education
 

The main reason I check out boards like this is to educate myself on the application of the rules. I'm certainly no expert, but at least I'm not the guy shouting "3 IN THE KEY" when the offense still has the ball in their backcourt. :D

In the defense of some fans, it is confusing when rules are enforced/interpreted differently by different officials. One of the common situations is A has ball and establishes frontcourt status. On a pass, B1 deflects ball into A's backcourt and one of A's players gains control in the backcourt. I've seen this called as a backcourt violation and also heard an official say "no violation, the ball was tipped". The casual fan has no way of knowing which call is correct.

That said, there is no excuse for beliigerent/unsportsmanlike behavior by any fan. I wish our league took a harder line on the issue.

Just to be clear, it is a violation if A is the last to touch the ball in the front court, even if B knocked it into that direction.

Problem is, many don't realize this and will scream about it when it's called. And, to your point, some officials either don't know it or won't call it for whatever reason.

An Idea: "Rules of the Game" Room
 

I've toyed with the idea of asking an AD to provide and promote to the fans a room, staffed by an experienced official with actual rules book and casebook, where interested people can go to get educated regarding the rules of the game. It would be necessary that the one staffing the room not be an official involved in the games that night.
Between games, at intermissions, people can pop in, ask a question, get an informed answer, then take their position in the bleachers as a further-informed fan.
Don't know how well it would work, but it seems as if it would be a step in the right direction. I'm not so much proposing this idea as an official, rather as an occasional observer at my former high school who'd like to see the level of reason of the average "fan" rise to a reasonable level.

I noticed you used the "wrong" letter here. You need only one more of those to complete your Freudian slip. ;)

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